Nearly a week ago, the Star-Telegram newspaper ran a story about a 13-year old kid who used the DOS command, net send, to say Hey! to his Middle School classroom. He had meant to send the message to the local classroom, but it got sent to every computer in the school. The school administration had a knee jerk reaction to it and suspended the poor kid. It’s another example of why the “no tolerance” policy many schools have adopted is a huge failure, and will continue to be so as more schools employ it. Why? Who knows why, as it’s baffling why we don’t provide second chances to kids who aren’t even common criminals, when in the real world, it is full of second chances.

I’m getting ahead of myself, but a page was created by the kid, his mother, and his father, to provide their side of the story about the whole ordeal. It is quite fascinating, and at the same time, disgusting when you realize just how stupid the school officials are. The computer teacher refers to the act as hacking, thanks to her ignorance, largely fueled by Hollywood who portray hacking as a very broad term, a kid gets suspended for 3 days. If you’re going to hire someone to teach kids about computers, make sure she/he knows what they’re doing and are proficient at the field.